On Tuesday AMD's main rival, Intel, reported third-quarter revenue of $10.2 billion, a record for the company but up just 1 percent from the year earlier. Net income of $2 billion for Intel was up 12 percent from the same quarter in 2007. But Intel said it couldn't predict the impact of the financial crisis on customers going forward, and warned that companies may defer IT purchases.

Last week ERP (enterprise resource planning) software giant SAP warned that its revenue would be lower than expected when it reports earnings later this month, due to a sharp drop off in orders at the end of its quarter.